Month: August 2017

One of the most common neurologic complaints we encounter in the Emergency Department is seizure. Typically, a patient with epilepsy will have a breakthrough seizure, or somebody will try some drugs and get a seizure, or the seizure will be the first symptom of a dangerous medical condition. Regardless, 911 will almost always get called if the seizure is witnessed, and by the time the patient gets to you, the seizure is almost completely resolved or they are stable and post-ictal. It is our job to sort through these cases.

You will probably witness a few cardiac arrest cases during your clerkship. Sometimes these happen in the hospital, but usually these patient’s will be brought into the ED, CPR in progress, by EMS. Just like in trauma, we follow a very basic, logical algorithm when we resuscitate these patients, and this algorithm is called ACLS.

It is really important to use the correct terminology when presenting a patient with right upper quadrant abdominal pain to your attending. If you want a good score on your SLOE, your differential diagnosis has to contain more than just “cholecystitis”. We will cover a basic approach today with a focus on the terminology to use in your differential diagnosis.

Not all patients with chest pain are having a STEMI, or massive PE, or aortic dissection. In fact, most patients with chest pain will have a set of normal labs, feel better, and we then have to decide what to do next. Admit or Discharge? What if we send this low risk patient, complaining of chest pain, home? What if they get home and die of a massive MI, and you had seen them the day before for chest pain? That’s why this is a huge topic that your attendings will want you to understand. In this episode we will talk low risk chest pain, and specifically, the HEART score.